Happy Veteran's Day/Update on Thai School

I promise these two topics are related... Veteran's Day was this past Sunday and as usual, it felt strange celebrating an American holiday in a country where no one else is celebrating or even acknowledging that it is happening. Thai people are already ushering in the Christmas season because no one celebrates Thanksgiving here besides American ex-pats like myself. Yeah for being an American!

I am exactly 12 hours ahead now that Daylight Savings has started in the US so when people post things on Facebook, I'm already well into the next day (the day after Veteran's Day was a Monday). Monday was a pretty ordinary day...I talked to my Mom on Skype, exercised, then I went to Thai school for an hour and a half, followed by lunch at the BSC.

My Thai teacher, Eh, decided to walk back to the BSC with me to eat at the BSC canteen (what the eating area is called). We had a really good conversation partly in Thai, partly mostly in English that somehow led into a discussion about Veteran's Day (I had seen so many posts about it on Facebook, I guess it was still on my mind). I learned that Eh was a soldier before he became a Thai teacher.

In Thai, they have two words that describe soldiers: 1. soldier "tha-haan" 2. soldier who has gone to war "tha-haan rohp." Since Eh has never gone to war, he is in the first category of soldiers. It was difficult to explain that a veteran in the US is anyone who has ever been in the military or still is in the military. Since I know so many veterans, this seemingly insignificant holiday is actually rather significant for me. It was a joy to get to talk to Eh outside the classroom and learn something about his history.

I am in my third and final month of Thai school and it has been so awesome to learn the language of the country where I'm currently residing. I'm nowhere near fluent but I feel way more confident than I did before I started Thai school. I prayed before I started learning Thai to just have some grasp of the language, and thanks be to God, I finally do! My last day of Thai school is November 26 and though I'm excited about ministries I am going to get more involved in after this commitment is over, I will be sad to conclude my studies and time in the classroom with Eh.

Eh at Friday Night Life [photo credit: Laura Landry]